Elevation Radio with guest Dan Severn
Host John Kline
Full audio interview available at BlogTalkRadio.com.

How a lunch room conversation he had with Jim Cornette may have been the advent of Vince McMahon’s "Kiss My Ass" Club: "Jim comes by and he stops and he puts his hand on my shoulder and says ‘Dan, I don’t know what you’re doing, but keep on doing it….all the boys are nervous around you.’ I said, why are they nervous? He (Cornette) says: ‘Its because you are by yourself…you’re not trying to blend in.’ I said that I will blend in at my pace because I know there is good and bad in everything.

"So I’m sitting back and watching entertainment here right now. I’m watching political negotiations taking place that I like to fondly refer to as "The Chap Stick Club." …..What is professional wrestling? It is nothing more than a politically motivated sports entertainment product. Who becomes champion? Its through all this lobbying and politicking, and basically a lot of kissing ass. I’m surprised more professional wrestlers don’t go into the business of politics they are perfect for it. It was not more than a few months after that that they came out with that whole 'Kiss My Ass Club' And I kept thinking, I wonder how that came to."

Dan’s reaction to Brock Lesnar’s antics following UFC 100: "I know why these guys are doing it, it sells tickets and not everybody can be that way. A lot of people look down on Brock Lesnar because his last match he is flipping people off and he is making a few off colored comments and this and that. I’m just like, he is selling tickets. Its what he’s doing. I’m sure he did get caught up in all the enthusiasm that he won, everyone does antics, any sport across the board people are going to act like that….Brock Lesnar was a professional wrestler."

Dan on how he advised Rashad Evans to attend a professional wrestling class in order to become a more marketable personality and how "The Beast" was involved with getting Evans onto The Ultimate Fighter: "Rashad Evans for example was quiet as a church mouse. Rashad Evans did the first of his training down at my training facility, Michigan Sports Camps at Coldwater, Michigan. He did his first amateur (MMA) matches with my company The Danger Zone. He did his first pro matches with my company The Danger Zone.

"It is because of me, and my making my phone calls to the UFC, I got him into the Ultimate Fighter in the first place….He took that opportunity, so I told him ‘Rashad, you need to come watch these professional wrestlers…..you will learn something. You will learn how to cut promos. You will learn what is known as ring presence. It teaches you so much. It teaches you how to tell a story with your facial expressions and your audio and body language.’ And he started adding more to his repertoire. Because fight shows across the United States are a dime a dozen. ‘Whats going to set you apart is you (Rashad), your personality.’

The Beast shares his idea that the WWE could be the one company to make a serious run at the UFC for MMA supremacy: "I’ve been asked before, ‘is there anyone that can compete with the UFC?’ I go, ‘Yes, but not right out of the blocks.’ The only company that could compete against them right out of the blocks would be an organization like the WWE….Look at the infrastructure that they have. …They’ve been in business at least fifty years…they worked with all these various athletic commissions.

"They know how to put on a production product. They have such good international distribution. The whole nine yards. They could make an impact right out of the get go. The problem is, don’t let professional wrestling people meddle in the MMA industry. Bring on some guys for the MMA portion that know how to book matches there. Let the creative team come in for ‘lets have a cool entrance, lets have cool music’ all that stuff. …I think they could do that. If you were to combine those two things they could step in MMA right now and make an impact."

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